20 Second Timeout is the place to find the best analysis and commentary about the NBA.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

A Treasure Trove of Basketball Articles and Interviews

Frankly, it is stunning to me to realize how many prominent basketball figures I have been fortunate enough to interview; there is literally a treasure trove of basketball history on this site and I think that I have done a much better job of arranging and conducting these interviews than I have of presenting this material in an aesthetically pleasing manner. To paraphrase Dr. McCoy's famous line, I'm a writer, not a website designer. Initially, I grouped the article and interview links mainly by where they had been published but now I have reorganized the links section thematically, leading off with a link to Best Ever Sports Talk and then following that with these categories:

Guest Appearances on Gotham Hoops Live Radio Show: In two appearances, I have spoken with host Mike Silva about the 1992 Dream Team, my Pantheon series and this season's flurry of trades, among other topics.

Links to My 2008 HoopsHype All-Star Weekend Reports; Links to My 2007 HoopsHype All-Star Weekend Reports; Links to My 2006 HoopsHype All-Star Weekend Reports: Learn about what happens behind the scenes at All-Star Weekend and get a taste of what the various host cities are like.

Articles Originally Published at NBCSports.com: During the 2006-07 season, I did a series of articles for NBCSports.com, including providing some game recaps for them during the playoffs and Finals. Unfortunately, they literally blew up their NBA website and destroyed all of the article links. I reprinted those articles as 20 Second Timeout posts. For now, I am keeping these articles together but I may later decide to split them up by theme.

NBA/ABA History: This is what I consider to be the heart and soul of 20 Second Timeout. Sports Illustrated, Sport and other magazines used to regularly provide in depth articles about/ interviews with great athletes and coaches; sadly, instead of feeding us such nutritious content the mainstream media too often dispenses "junk food"--short, puff pieces with no substance or insight. I am trying to fill a void here that many readers sadly may not even realize exists, particularly readers who are too young to remember when sports writers actually spent more time writing than appearing on TV to scream at each other.

Kobe Bryant: When the article links are organized thematically, some people may be surprised to find out that there are only a small number of articles here about Kobe Bryant and all of them are at least two years old. Yes, I have done many 20 Second Timeout posts about Bryant but there is a ton of material at this site that has nothing to do with Bryant; perhaps the site reorganization will make it easier for readers to find and enjoy those articles as well.

Basketball 101: Strategy and Tactics: If "NBA/ABA History" is the heart and soul of 20 Second Timeout, this section holds the brains.

The Pantheon: My five part series examined the greatness of an elite group of basketball players and looked at which active players may someday join this exclusive club.

Basketball Themed Fiction: There is only one entry here right now, but hopefully you will find it to be entertaining.

Author Interviews: Pretty self-explanatory; there is a lot of good stuff here and the interviews are in depth, none of this "six questions and call it a day" nonsense that passes for an interview in a lot of places.

A Partial Listing of Articles Reprinted at Other Sites: Oscar Robertson and Artis Gilmore have featured my work on their personal sites; SLAM, NBA.com and Notre Dame are among those who have also linked to my work.

2005 Playoff Previews and Recaps; 2005-06 Regular Season Predictions; 2006 Playoff Previews; 2006-07 Regular Season Predictions; 2007 Playoff Previews and Recaps; 2007-08 Regular Season Predictions: Look back and find out how well--or how poorly--I predicted what would happen in recent seasons.

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"A work of art contains its verification in itself: artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the test of being turned into images; they fall to pieces, turn out to be sickly and pale, convince no one. Works which draw on truth and present it to us in live and concentrated form grip us, compellingly involve us, and no one ever, not even ages hence, will come forth to refute them."--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Lecture)

"The most 'popular,' the most 'successful' writers among us (for a brief period, at least) are, 99 times out of a hundred, persons of mere effrontery--in a word, busy-bodies, toadies, quacks."--Edgar Allan Poe

"In chess what counts is what you know, not whom you know. It's the way life is supposed to be, democratic and just."--Grandmaster Larry Evans

"It's not nuclear physics. You always remember that. But if you write about sports long enough, you're constantly coming back to the point that something buoys people; something makes you feel better for having been there. Something of value is at work there...Something is hallowed here. I think that something is excellence."--Tom Callahan